Bus at the stop and a tractor on the gravel track
It is a dry Thursday in late May. You are riding your 35 kW A2 motorcycle north on county road Fv. 63 outside Åndalsnes at about 70 km/h; the limit is 80 km/h. Ahead on the right is a bus stop where a local bus stands with its left indicator flashing, waiting to pull out. Forty metres past the bus stop, an unmarked gravel track joins the county road from the right. A tractor with a loaded silage trailer is creeping down that track towards the junction. There is no stop sign, no give-way sign and no stop line at the junction, and the county road itself carries no priority marking. An oncoming car has already slowed, apparently to wave the bus out. Visibility is good, the asphalt is dry and clean, and there is no traffic close behind you. You have ridden for two seasons and have never met farm machinery at this junction before.
1. The bus is indicating to leave the stop. Must you slow down and give way? Explain which rule decides it.
Read the worked answer
First decide whether you are inside or outside a built-up area (tettbygd strøk). The special rule that gives a bus priority when it signals to leave a marked stop applies in built-up areas. Here the limit is 80 km/h, there are no kerbs, street lighting or continuous housing, so this is outside a built-up area: the bus has no automatic priority and must wait for a safe gap.
That does not make it safe to ignore the bus. The oncoming car has slowed, the bus driver may read that as an invitation, and a bus pulling out takes the whole lane. The correct action is to ease off from 70 km/h, cover the brakes, keep the bus in peripheral vision and pass only when you have seen the driver and are sure the bus is stationary. An indicator is a statement of intention, not a right of way.
2. Who must give way at the unmarked junction with the gravel track, and how do you ride the last 100 metres?
Read the worked answer
At an unmarked junction the Norwegian default is priority to the right, so a vehicle arriving from a public road on your right would go first. The exception is a vehicle entering from a private road, farm track, driveway or forecourt: it must yield to traffic already on the public road. A gravel track serving fields and a farm shed is normally private, so the tractor must give way.
You still cannot assume it will. A loaded trailer pushes a tractor downhill even at walking pace, the driver's view to the left may be blocked by the load, and farm machinery is often driven by someone who has looked once. Reduce to 50–60 km/h before the junction, sit slightly left of the lane centre so you are visible past the bus, cover the brakes and be ready to stop. If the track turns out to be a maintained public road with a name sign, treat it as an ordinary right-hand priority junction and give way yourself.
3. The oncoming car flashes its headlights and waves. What do you do with that signal?
Read the worked answer
A driver waving or flashing is communicating an intention, not granting a right of way, and that driver has no authority over the bus or over you. If you accept the invitation and the bus pulls out at the same moment, you are the one in the collision.
Keep your own decision: the bus stays until you have passed. Also ask why the oncoming car slowed near the stop - a pedestrian stepping out from in front of the bus is a classic pattern at exactly this kind of stop. Reduce speed, do not overtake near the bus stop, and scan under and in front of the bus for feet and shadows before you commit.